Svolvær

Today we arrived at Svolvær in the far northern Lofoten Islands.

It is so far north that the sun starts to announce it's arrival at least two hours in advance, if the sky is clear as it was today.

Then once it actually gets over the horizon it stays so low that you see another hour or so of sunrises.

It gives a beautiful effect and we just couldn't stop taking photos.

Today we were being a bit more careful on our walk as fresh snow covered the steps up to a viewpoint, and after only a few metres we realised that we could not get any further.

However, the view was superb, and the only question now was how to get back down.

This was the first time that I was genuinely scared on this trip, but fortunately Daz led the way by turning the steps into a toboggan run, and I just followed him.

Back at sea level we followed the route recommended by Hurtigruten. This took us through the town and out on a harbour to the cod drying racks.

These were enormous structures upon which the cod that is caught locally is dried. They only do it over winter and in a couple of months they should all be full. It was interesting but also pretty smelly.

Beyond the fish racks were absolutely superb sea views that almost bought a tear to my eye.

Right at the end of the harbour was a statue of a woman looking out to sea waiting for her husband to return from the sea.

Rorvik

 Another day in Norway, and we are getting further and further north. Today we stopped in the little town of Rorvik that it is noticeably colder than previous days.

We are only here for the morning, and so we set off before sunrise and enjoyed watching the sun come over the horizon part way through our journey.

The hills here are lower than in Ålesund yesterday, but there was more snow.

We walked up to the panorama on the top of the Gluggfjellet hill, and looked down on to the little Storvatnet lake.

We struggled down the mini mountain, and by the time we got to the lake it was full of school children on a little outing.

Then we found a lovely wide path that would have cut short our walk and taken us straight back to the town. This seemed like a cop out so we carried onwards and then went up a hill on the other side of the valley.

Darren climbed through a load of trees to get a closer photo of a frozen stream.

Shortly afterwards our path disappeared under the snow, and we tried our best to follow footsteps, but they kept disappearing. I slipped over twice and we started to get very cold.

However, it was only our hands that suffered and we knew that the ship was nearby.

We had one last thing to visit before we could get on board. In 2012 the local church burned down and it was replaced with a modern building.

We had seen a photo of it and it appeared to be covered in scaffolding.

However, that was the finished effect and here it is 

It's probably very warm and cosy inside, but I wasn't impressed.

Finally, on our cruise north we passed a famous mountain with a huge hole through the middle of it. The hole is over 30 metres high and 20 metres wide and was made naturally by erosion over millions of years.

Zoom in to the photo and you can see the scale as there are houses on the waterfront that look tiny in comparison.

Ålesund

 Another day, another hike. This time from the lovely town of Ålesund.

Our plan was to walk from the town to the mini mountain in the distance, hike to the top and then reverse it all back to the ship.

We made good time through the streets and then set off up the path.

Very quickly we realised that the path and a stream crossed each other's path quite frequently. This would normally just involve damp boots, but as the stream was completely frozen it became quite dangerous.

Most of the route was fine though, and the scenery was superb.

We got fairly close to the top and the ice appeared again, so we decided that we had done enough and turned back.

The walk back down was easier than we expected, but the last ice section sloped downhill and seemed too scary so I went down into a crawl and slid elegantly downwards. Unfortunately there is no photo.

In the town I found an interesting signpost that showed that we were 3,073 away from the north pole, but 16,931 from the south pole.

Back on the ship I found out that the ship had taken a group on a hike to the top of the trail. However, they supplied them all with walking poles and extra sharp walking spikes.

Stavanger

Our ship docked at 11am and we had up to five hours in sub zero temperatures to explore Stavanger.

The day started quite normally and pleasantly with a stroll alongside the harbour.

Then we found a huge chess set that was extremely heavy, and the pieces seemed to be on wheels. I was keen to challenge Daz to a game, but the queen was so heavy that we just couldn't move her.

Then we found the old town with the pretty wooden houses that were all painted white.

Then a couple of novelty photo opportunities.

So far, so normal, but then we walked a couple of kilometres out of town to a pretty lake where the local parkrun is held.

When we got there the lake was frozen and it seemed like the whole town was out to enjoy it.

As we watched more and more people poured on to the ice, whole hockey teams with all the kit including goals, figure skaters, and lots of kids chasing each other around.

We walked round to the other side of the lake getting more and more jealous of them all, so we decided to slide back across the middle of the lake in our boots.

Fantastic fun.

Oslo

Yesterday we caught a flight to Oslo for our next adventure. We have gone a bit posh lately and have access to the airport lounges, so started the day with prosecco and a bacon butty. 

Then we landed at the airport, caught a train, and dressed up warmly for Oslo waterfront.

We are going on a Hurtigrurten cruise up and down the Norwegian coast, and our ship is just in view in the background. We walked along the waterfront and retraced the steps that we made the last time we visited which was in May 2023.

At that time there was a heatwave and people were jumping into the water. I thought it very surprising, they were still doing it today and I think that they were insane.

We dropped off our luggage and went for a stroll around town, and the temperature was well below zero.

Back on board and we had time to explore the ship, find out that the bar serves free wine, and enjoy a lovely dinner before the ship set sail at 10pm.

Today the sea was quite rough and the ship was rocking sideways. I wasn't ill, but was happy to mostly hibernate in our cabin, only venturing out for meals and coffees.

Darren made up for me though, and he went to the gym and up on the top deck to watch as we sailed past South Cape, the most southerly point on mainland Norway.

Maritime Museum and Storehouse

This blog is over a week out of date. I forgot to do it at the time, but it was a good day out, and better late than never.

First up was a walk to the Maritime Museum and a quick look at the impressive ship in a bottle at the entrance.

Once inside it was a little bit embarrassing as we were almost the first visitors of the day and were vastly outnumbered by loads of volunteers who were very keen to chat to us and tell us all about the exhibits.

It was fortunate that after a while the whole place started to fill up with children on school trips and we were left alone to browse.

There was so much more to see than we expected, but the main reason we came was to see Admiral Lord Nelson's jacket that he was wearing on board HMS Victory.

Very, very unfortunately, and after the battle was almost won he was shot by a sniper and died shortly afterwards. A volunteer pointed out the hole in the jacket where the shot hit him.

We then caught the DLR up to Stratford for another exhibition, that also had a large number of helpful and knowledgeable volunteers.

This was the new V and A Storehouse at the Olympic Park.

This incredible and enormous building houses all of the surplus items that do not fit into the actual V and A Museum. You are allowed to walk along paths to look at everything.

There is even a glass floor where you are standing right on top of a huge archway that was taken from the Taj Mahal.

The building is kept at 20 degrees and without sunlight, and we were very impressed that there was no dust anywhere.

Yet another volunteer (what would we have done without them today) who explained that they have a massive ducting system that draws dust up in to it without damaging the items.

How wonderful would it be to have one of those at home.